


Loyal in Antarctica

by Lilly_Bei_Stark



Category: Hellboy - All Media Types
Genre: Antarctica, Fighting giant werewolves in the snow!, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 03:56:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4592013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilly_Bei_Stark/pseuds/Lilly_Bei_Stark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hellboy goes to Antarctica to help with a werewolf problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loyal in Antarctica

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Okay, so this is supposed to take place after the events of Golden Army, but since I'm not incredibly fond of the movie and my pairing is (and will always be) Hellboy/John Myers, I'm going to write as if Liz never got pregnant. Yeah I could write out of it, and maybe it's lazy not to deal with it, but I don't like the idea of her miscarrying or aborting Hellboy's babies and I doubt Big Red would let her run off with his children, so I'm excluding that point.  
> Warnings: Graphic Violence, M/M, Swearing  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Hellboy, I just like playing with the characters.  
> I hope you all enojoy!

Antarctica was the last place that Hellboy wanted to be right now. He was in a bad mood when Krauss and Abe had contacted him. 

Liz had left him again. Left to be normal. Hellboy wanted to pursue her; he could do it this time, since they had all quit the BPRD and the press knew all about him now. After they fought the Golden Army and Nuada, things had seemed so good. 

If it had stayed that way, Hellboy knew he would be going after her, not heading up to cold-ass Antarctica. 

But things had changed. 

Liz had changed. 

She was uncomfortable when someone saw them together, even though they had no reason to hide anymore, but she also wasn't content to have their own secluded place. Liz wanted to see the world, without the constant feeling that the world saw her. They both knew that when Hellboy was at her side, everyone saw her. 

Thus, Liz left him again, and Hellboy knew that this time was permanent. She went to see the world; Hellboy went to sulk. That was, until Abe had contacted him with a request for help in Antarctica.

It was fucking cold in Antarctica. Normally, Hellboy couldn't care less about the cold. His body temperature was hot enough that it took a while for the cold to bring it down. Not in Antarctica. It was too fucking cold here.

The temperature had first hit him when he stepped off the cargo plane. It was snowing hard. No one seemed to give a shit. There were still people running around on the barely visible tarmac, gathering boxes and passengers to take them into a metal hangar which was miraculously holding out against the heavy load of snow that seemed determined to bury any trace of life on this godforsaken ice cube. 

Hellboy headed to the hangar without any prompting, cold enough to pull the lapels of his duster closed over his chest as he fought against the wind. His boots slid a few times over hidden patches of ice, but eventually he was able to get into the cover of the metal building.

There were two lines of tall heaters. They looked like lamp posts, painted black, except in place of the light was a metal cylinder that was dotted with holes and glowing slightly orange as it pushed heat up into the dome that sat atop it and back down to the ground where the people in need of it were. Hellboy sidled up to one of the heaters, letting the warmth wash over his face as he looked over the rest of the hangar. 

Several vehicles were parked along the right, all fitted with high tread tires and reinforced frames. Any mission out in that snowy oblivion was probably greatly improved inside one of those things, but there was no doubt that driving them over ice at any speed could be deadly. On the other side of the hangar was a stairway. A large swathe of the ice had been carved out; enough for a long set of metal stairs to be put in. 

From what Abe had mentioned over the phone, the majority of the base was down there. It was similar to the set up from the BPRD, but minus the elevator. Getting an elevator to work out here in the early days had apparently been a failure enough times that now it was forgotten from the 'to-do' list.

As his thoughts touched on his icthyo sapien friend, the person in question came into view. It was almost hard to tell that it was Abe beneath his layers of coats, hood pulled tight around his breathing apparatus to keep the water inside from freezing. The only indication that the walking marshmallow really was Abe was his blue face poking out of the winter camouflage patterned coat he was wearing. 

Hellboy chuckled at the sight, walking towards the stairs to greet him. It was the first time he'd felt like himself since Liz left, but the jokes that popped up in his mind were a welcome change to the brooding.

"Abe! You better be careful out here. The other agents might think you froze to death and came back as a zombie." He teased lightly. He expected the two of them to stop a few paces apart, looking each other over, but the time and distance had taken its toll and they both found themselves giving the other a quick, tight embrace. When Abe drew back, his expression was akin to that of a wide smile. Hellboy knew he was grinning right back.

"I'm glad you came, Red. I had not realized that leaving the BPRD would give me so few chances to speak to you." His gloved hand waved dismissively. "At any rate, come inside. It is much warmer downstairs." Hellboy gave a sharp nod. He didn't need told twice.

The two of them descended the stairs slowly. Each step had raised ridges to provide as much friction as possible, but the ice seemed determined to overtake anything it could and the stairs were still mildly dangerous. The room at the bottom of the stairs was barely more than a cave carved out of the ice. Abe had mentioned over the phone that the base was built in the remnants of an ice-dragon's lair. Under closer inspection, Hellboy could see the grooves in the walls that would easily translate to dragon scales. At the opposite end of the small cave was a much more man-made looking doorway. Heavy doors were locked into the ice walls, probably several feet thick from the look of them. 

As Hellboy followed Abe towards them, he caught a glance down. Surprise stopped him in his tracks for a moment when he saw the floor around him. The metal strip that led them forward, again ridged for traction, was set into the remains of a deep, frozen lake. The surface was cloudy, like frosted glass, so he hadn't realized at first what he was noticing now. The solid ice lake was so deep that the end faded from sight and it was filled with thousands of frozen bodies.

Abe stopped when he noticed Hellboy staring into the lake, a sight with which he was already familiar. His dark eyes skated over his friend, watching for him to shake himself from the sudden trance. 

Hellboy didn't know the danger that could come from the strange lake. It wasn't the kind of danger that Abe could just pull him away from. The demon would have to look away on his own. If Abe tried to force his eyes away, then Hellboy would end up in the ice, where his mind already was. 

He had faced a similar trial on his first visit to the arctic base. The lake would trap the mind of the unsuspecting, luring them in with the unusual sight. One without the will to live would walk out onto its surface, letting their body be swallowed into the ice. 

Everyone came out of it on their own, eventually. But if someone tried to pull them out of the trance, they would separate the person's mind from their body. Without a mind to provide them a will to live, the lake could take the body in as well.

Hellboy didn't move for the longest time. His eyes were fixed on a body that was almost thirty feet deep. It was a frail form, alabaster skin touched with a hint of blue. Dark brown hair was raised messily around the face, as if frozen in the act of falling. Hellboy swallowed as the face brought up a twinge of familiarity and guilt. 

Why was he down there? What had happened? Hellboy felt the urge to climb onto the ice and pound his stone fist into it until he could get down to that lifeless-looking body. He swallowed hard, unable to tear his eyes away. The name was floating to the surface in his mind; a name he'd never forgotten, but forced himself not to think about. 

It was true that he was supposed to be here in Antarctica, but Hellboy thought he'd be safer....at least safer than he was at the BPRD. He started to open his mouth, almost as if saying the name could free the one he'd condemned. Suddenly, a flutter of motion rippled over the lax face and Hellboy was fixed with eyes like melted chocolate. Hellboy jerked back, tearing his eyes away with a swear.

"Very unnerving, isn't it?" The demon turned his head quickly to his friend, who was patiently standing a few feet away.

"That...are they really...?" Hellboy felt his mouth growing dry. Was the body down there really him? How had he gotten frozen?

"The lake draws people in. Your mind was inside the ice. If I had shaken you, it would have severed you from your body. Then the lake would have absorbed that too." Abe explained, giving a small, dismissive wave.

"Then all of those people..." Hellboy cast another wary glance at the ice, but the lake was dormant this time.

"Ah, not all of them. The lake absorbs those who lack the will to live. Thus, if your mind is separated from your body, it will take you. Most of those who are frozen were..." Abe trailed off, trying to be delicate despite the fact that the state of mind he was indicating wasn't all that uncommon in those who dealt with the supernatural. "...suicidal." He finished finally, unable to find a way around his bluntness. He saw Hellboy balk and lowered his head in a sad nod. "It is regrettable, but all attempts to hide the lake have failed. It calls to people." The icthyo sapien gestured to the door behind him. "We should get inside Red....you've started shivering."

Hellboy noticed the shudders racking him, but he didn't feel the cold. He ducked his head, not really wanting to meet his friend's eyes as he started towards the door again. Abe took his action as agreement and assumed his lead again, taking the last few steps to the key pad on the door. His gloved hand flew over the numbers as he typed in the seven digit code. Loud clunks and metallic whines started. There seemed to be a lot of movement going on inside the door as a multitude of locks pulled apart. When it all stopped, there was a slight pause before the doors slowly swung apart. There was a rush of warm air, pushing at the two of them even as the promise of heat invited them further inside. Abe tapped his boots against a small lip at the threshold of the door, an ingrained attempt to dislodge any traces of snow. Hellboy watched him for a moment before giving a small 'when in Rome' shrug and copying the action.

After their boots were clean, the two of them stepped up into the first room of the base. Admittedly, it was a bit long to be called a room. It was more of a large hallway. The floor was perforated metal, designed to catch and drain away the melted snow through a pan at the bottom leading to a heated pipe that ran out another side of the base. The walls were a simple, military gray, which somehow felt warmer than the blue of the ice cave had. Lights glowed up from black runners that lined the large hall/room. It let them see without feeling like they were under clinical scrutiny, as flourescent ceiling lights were prone to. 

Abe led Hellboy to the far side of the hall/room, keeping silent as he sensed that the demon was muddling through some rather heavy thoughts. Another pair of double doors slid out of the way as he typed in the code, opening to an even warmer room.

The door closed behind them quickly, causing Hellboy to break from his thoughts for a moment as he grimaced at how close they got to his tail. Surprised into awareness again, he looked around the room that they had come to. This one looked more like a waiting room than anything else. Three walls were painted a deep burgundy, while the fourth was a light beige. Over all, it made the room feel warm and inviting. Hellboy found his sense of humor again as he thought that if the entire base was painted this way, he might be able to sneak up on people for the first time in his life. His attention shifted when Abe moved to sit down on one of two black couches in the middle of the room. He glanced up at the tan wall, where the next large doorway was.

"Sit down, Red. Doctor Krauss is going to meet us out here, and we have to wait for the fourth in our group." Hellboy inclined his head curiously at the mention of a fourth, moving to sit gingerly on the couch across from Abe. Surprisingly, it held the weight without so much as a creak. Hellboy looked around again, finding little to occupy him on the surrounding walls. They were oddly void. It seemed like there should be pictures on them or something. He was about to mention it to Abe when the sapien beat him to it. "The walls have retractable panels with emergency gear and medical equipment." Hellboy looked back to him, watching as Abe slowly drew his hood down from his head. "This room is the first that can be used to take care of injuries from the outside without risk of frostbite." Abe tilted his head. "It's actually rather fascinating how much research was done to keep the agents here alive." 

Hellboy felt a pang of guilt take his mind back to the frozen lake. To the body he'd seen down in the ice. He'd thought that agent would be safe too. He never imagined that sending him to Antarctica would make him suicidal. Abe must have seen something in his expression, because the icthyo sapien leaned forward to catch his friend's attention.

"Red? Is everything all right?" He asked gently, half expecting the typical response of a grunt followed by the command to stay out of his head. Hellboy worried him even further when he slowly shook his head.

"What'd I do to him, Blue?" The demon said dejectedly. He didn't know why he was so upset by this. He'd lost agents before. Almost lost Clay, who he actually liked. So why was it that he felt what could only be pain at the thought of losing the one that he had pushed away.

"Who, Red? What are we talking about?" Abe heard the doors opening behind him, but paid them no mind. It would be Doctor Krauss and he needed to hear what Hellboy had to say.

"He's dead cuz of me...Because I was a fucking ass...." Hellboy raised his gaze, his expression blank except for the sadness in his eyes. He saw Krauss walk in through the doors on the beige wall. He would have given the German a greeting if he felt like he could muster one. The doors behind him were echoing the noise of the ones shutting in front of him. He knew he'd have to think about this later. Their last group member was here. It was time to get to work.

Abe wasn't going to let the conversation wait, however, as Hellboy's state was worrying him greatly. "What are you talking about? Who's dead?" The demon shook his head slowly.

"Myers..." He growled, feeling a wave of self loathing. Abe and Krauss both straightened. They looked surprised. Hellboy didn't know why. They had been here longer than he had. It should have been evident that the little FBI agent that Hellboy had gotten sent to this base wasn't around. The shocked look from Abe moved over Hellboy's shoulder. The demon frowned. What the hell was he looking at? He turned his neck to see who had walked in with the wave of cool air and his eyes widened.

"If I'm dead, someone forgot to tell me." John T. Myers joked, fixing Hellboy with a familiar smile that for some reason made the demon's heart falter.

John was dressed in winter gear like the others. His skin, still paler than most, seemed to have gained a slight tan and his brown hair was longer. It hung around the edges of his cold reddened face, looking slightly damp from being outside. His lips were chapped. The little scar on his chin still hadn't faded. 

Every detail that Hellboy took in was the same Myers he knew from the BPRD, plus a few markers of time. Then he spotted the eyes and everything stopped. Red... John's eyes were bright, fiery red. There wasn't any doubt that the color was wrong. It wasn't the deep, melted fudge brown that Hellboy knew his former liaison's eyes were supposed to be. Either something major had happened to the human, or this wasn't John.

"I saw you in the ice." Hellboy settled on the simple explanation, rather than ask the dozen questions that were fighting to be first in his head. It was like he had said the magic words as he felt the room take a collective sigh. John gave him a wider smile and his crimson eyes lit up.

"Really?!" He sounded excited. 

Hellboy was trying to find answers to the situation, still on edge with his feeling of guilt from the ice lake and confusion over the agent's eyes, and the human sounded fucking excited? 

He was about to snarl something about John not getting the 'frozen in ice' part, when his former liaison jumped up to hug him around the neck. Hellboy gave a start, his flesh hand coming up reflexively to wrap around the human, who was actually hanging a few inches off the ground from his grip.

John actually was excited, and it wasn't just from seeing Hellboy after such a long time. Okay, it was partially from seeing him. In fact, it had taken all of his willpower not to embrace the demon the instant he got close enough. 

It had been over a year since Hellboy got him shipped out of the BPRD. A year without the demon that he wanted to see desperately. It had been hard. 

The arctic base was far more dangerous than things had been at the BPRD, not counting the whole Rasputin end of the world thing. He had his share of scars from close encounters. 

Even though it was dangerous, and he had been sent away by the one he was completely devoted to, John never hated Hellboy. He knew the demon had wanted things to work out with Liz. If he saw John as a threat that needed to go away, then away he would go. If Hellboy ever called for him, he would be back. After all, that was the promise he'd made. After the Rasputin incident...

 

-Rasputin's Mausoleum, 50 miles from Moscow-

The snow was coming down in blinding waves. Sometime during Hellboy and Liz's post battle kiss and the group's hasty escape, a blizzard had begun. The few of them that had survived were making the long trek back to their truck. Hellboy carried Liz, keeping her wrapped tightly in the blanket she had been covered with in order to keep her from being subjected to frostbite on top of everything else she'd been through. Manning was leading the way, and John was bringing up the rear. He had his eyes glued to Hellboy's back, the tan and occasional bits of red skin providing him a much needed guide in the storm.

John stumbled. He was so tired. They all were, he reminded himself, probably Hellboy more than anyone. He felt his eyes glazing over and tried to blink them clear. If Hellboy could push on, then he would push himself on too. 

He opened his eyes again and groaned as everything spun. His head ached where the blonde Nazi woman, Ilsa, had hit him with the mallet. His arms burned and itched where Liz's fire had melted away patches of his skin. John felt his body hit the snow heavily. It was cold...he tried to push himself up and cringed when his injured hand gave out under him. He'd twisted his thumb to get free of the shackles earlier and the crack that he heard as he fell back to the snow told him he had undoubtedly just dislocated it. 

John gave a weak groan and laughed at himself bitterly. He'd survived demons and monsters, Liz's flame, the immortal Nazi chick. Now he was going to die because of a snow storm. Well...at least he'd helped Hellboy. Professor Broom said he was the pure hearted knight. Maybe he'd fulfilled his role. Now it was done....he was done....

"Boyscout?! Hey! Eyes open kid!" There was a light slapping on his cheek. John opened his eyes to see the familiar amber gazing down at him. He blinked, opening his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He was so tired. Everything hurt. He closed his eyes again. More slaps forced them open. What was going on? Why couldn't Hellboy just let him sleep? The demon growled, hoisting John into his arms. "Don't you dare die on me, scout!" Hellboy commanded, pulling the edges of his duster around John's shaking form. 

The heat felt so nice. The agent nuzzled against his shoulder, feeling the demon jump as he walked. John knew that he could die happy now. Hellboy had come back for him; wanted him to live. It made him happy in ways he couldn't explain.

He wasn't sure if he'd passed out, but he was certain at the time that he was dreaming. Hellboy was beside him in a helicopter. The demon was holding Liz, occasionally glancing from her to John. Manning was in the front with the pilot. The helicopter pitched and swayed in the storm. A few times, John started to slide on the seat, only to be pulled back by Hellboy's tail that was wrapped around his chest, beneath his arms. After the fourth time it happened, the tail pulled him closer. Hellboy shifted Liz to the left side of his lap and raised John slightly to lay his head on his right leg. His stone hand moved to lay over the agent's side, holding him in place. 

John was mildly aware that the demon had cleared his throat with a touch of embarrassment, although he was too caught up in the heat he could feel against his cheek to care. He still felt like he was on death's door. Or maybe he'd gone through it. Maybe this was heaven. Whatever it was, being at Hellboy's side made it good. John had the thought then that he would stay by the demon; loyal to the end. He belonged to Hellboy. Whatever he wanted, John was willing to give. His friendship, his loyalty, his life. It all belonged to him.

 

-Antarctica-

Hellboy felt John's arms release him and lowered the man back to the floor. He fixed the agent with a serious stare, still confused at what was going on. His confusion only grew when the human looked around him at the other two occupants in the room, still wearing a gigantic smile. "Did you hear, Abe?! He saw me!" Hellboy turned to look at the sapien.

"Will someone please explain to me how he's excited?" He growled. John jumped at the sound, a bit surprised after not having heard it in so long. Krauss chuckled, ectoplasm swirling in the glass dome at the top of his suit. Abe took a step towards them, making a wide gesture with both of his hands.

"Everything is quite all right, Red. Something I failed to mention about the way the ice lake works is that sometimes it conjures up the image of a friend or a loved one. It is just an illusion. A way to take the will to live away from whomever is looking." Abe motioned to John. "He is happy because you still care about him." He explained. 

Hellboy shifted his amber gaze back to John. He couldn't quite tell, since the agent's cheeks were already red from the cold, but it seemed like he was blushing. He felt a bit of embarrassment well up in his chest, counting himself incredibly lucky that it was almost impossible for others to tell if he was blushing too.

"Well...of course..." He grunted, looking away. "You're still a friend, boyscout. Your brain freeze from being up here too long or somethin'?" He asked gruffly. John looked up at him, then flashed that soft smile again, and laughed.

"Probably." He reached up, slipping his hand under his hood to rub the back of his neck. "I was told by the director that I go outside too often." He chuckled. 

Hellboy stared at him. He didn't know how John wasn't at least a little bit mad at him. Not only was the agent standing in front of him, not angry, but he was giving that smile that made his entire face look content. He looked five years younger when he smiled like that. Hellboy felt a little twinge of guilt, followed by something he couldn't place. Instead of trying to deal with the confusing emotions vying for his attention, he decided to get back to the task at hand.

"So, I'm guessing Boyscout is our fourth? We gonna get down to business?" He reached into his coat pocket to pull out a cigar, patting his duster for his matchbook. John reached down to his belt, opening a small pouch that rested on the side of his hip. He pulled out a book of matches, half of them used, and lit it. Hellboy looked at the agent curiously as he leaned in to let him light the cigar. John didn't smoke. Why did he have matches? When the human returned the matchbook to his pouch, Hellboy realized that it must be his emergency bag. He got a glimpse of protein bars and a flare gun before the bag snapped shut.

"Of course. Ve do need to get this undervay." Krauss spoke up, thick German accent piping in with the usual confidence. Hellboy, although he still didn't really like Germans, had developed a begrudging respect for Krauss and decided to move back to his seat to listen. Abe returned to his place on the opposite couch, Krauss beside him. John moved to sit down beside Hellboy, who cast him a glance. He was still confused about John's eyes, but Abe seemed to be fine with him, so he would have to wait until later to ask. Other things had to have his attention first.

"So why did ya' call me out t' this ice box?" He leaned back on the couch, throwing his arm along the back. John turned his head a little, giving Hellboy a glimpse of the agent's crimson eyes again.

"We're having a werewolf problem." John answered. Abe nodded and pulled a few pictures from his coat pocket, leaning forward to hand them to Hellboy. He took them, looking over the Polaroids curiously. Most of the pictures were gruesome, depicting the damage done to several unfortunate agents. 

When he got to the last two, he finally saw what it was that they were talking about. The wolf in the picture was chewing on an agent's femur, the long bone only about the size of a milkbone compared to the large mouth that gnawed on it. The wolf was completely white, making it hard to see on the background of snow. The blood helped. Crimson outlined the wolf's muzzle and forelegs. A few blotches on its flank spoke as the only testament to the fight that the dead agents had put up.

"Am I wrong, or is that thing the size of a polar bear?" Hellboy asked slowly. John gave a soft chuckle, reminding the demon that he had been in the paranormal world way too long.

"Bigger." John leaned over to point to the femur in the wolf's mouth. "That guy was almost your size, HB." He received a surprised stare. Hellboy took his cigar out of his mouth to blow the smoke off to his right.

"Damn. That thing the only one?" He looked towards Abe, handing him the pictures.

"If it were, perhaps we would not have had to call you up here. There are at least three. We have located the den, but two of the agents that breached it were killed. Another two survived. They are in the intensive care ward. The werewolves are too dangerous to risk human agents going near them. The last thing we need is to boost their numbers. The two agents in intensive care are non-human, so they were able to reject the lycanthropy, but they are in no condition for another breach attempt. That left only one non-human agent for the task, which is why John called us. Together we can go in and hopefully finish off the pack before they kill anyone else." Abe explained, nodding to John when he said his name. Hellboy looked over the agent again.

"You giving the orders on the mission? Where's the other agent?" John snickered quietly, turning to face him.

"Really, HB? You think I'd be here if I weren't going with you?" He fixed Hellboy with his scarlet eyes. The demon stared at him. John's eyes glowed like hot embers, almost the same color red as Hellboy's skin.

"You're not human...since when?! What happened?!" He realized that worry was washing over him. He didn't know why. Whatever it was that happened to John, it was already done. John had obviously survived. There was nothing he could do about it now. 

"It happened a few weeks before my transfer." He shrugged his shoulders. "I've been like this for a while. I'm one of this base's few non-humans, and right now I'm the only one active. That's why I got the go ahead from my director to bring in help. I can hold my own against one of those things, but not three."

"You are far too small to fight vith those volves on your own, Agent Myers." Krauss added. This time, Hellboy could see John blush. He'd warmed up enough to lose the redness in his cheeks until the ectoplasm specialist had spoken about his size. 

The demon chuckled at the look on his face. John was kind of cute when he was embarrassed. Hellboy blinked, surprised at the thought, but trying to hide it on his face. Had he just thought of the agent as cute? He was a guy! Hellboy was no homophobe, but he'd always been into girls, and from the way John had flirted with Liz, so was the boyscout. What in god's name had come over him?!

"I'm not that small." Myers' protest broke Hellboy out of his thoughts and he gave a small snort of laughter. John shot him a glare, although the look didn't have any real anger in it.

"What, boyscout? I've told you before that you're tiny." He laughed around his cigar. The agent cracked a smile.

"Isn't pretty much everyone tiny compared to you, Red?" He shot back. Hellboy had to hand it to the kid. As serious as he had been when they first met, now John could laugh like the rest of them.

"So, now that we have that explained, we should start gathering our equipment." Abe rose to his feet. The others copied, Hellboy lowering a hand to the Samaratin at his side.

"I've got everything I need." He grinned. John chuckled.

"Then how about a nap? Maybe you can preempt the jet lag a little bit." He offered. Hellboy nodded. A nap sounded good. He had barely slept on the flight over.

"Lead the way, scout." John smiled at Krauss and Abe.

"Okay. I'll come down to the armory after I show Red to his room." He gave them a parting nod, then waved for Hellboy to follow him.

They passed through the doors on the beige wall into a long hall. The base had gone back to a military style interior design; slate gray walls lined with doors, a black floor, and a white ceiling. The hall turned into stairs, taking them a level deeper. 

Hellboy was starting to get edgy as he followed John through the samey halls. Scout had been all smiles to him back with the others, but now that they were alone he was quiet again. The demon was waiting for the yelling to start. 

John had to be mad at him. He'd sent him off to this frozen hellhole after all. He had to be mad. He would yell. And Hellboy would take it. He deserved anything that John could dish out to him. He had banished the agent to an icy wasteland over a girl. 

A girl that had left him more times than he could count, and who had left him again. Liz would always leave, but John... John only left because it was what Hellboy had wanted. So when John finally stopped near the end of the second long hallway, Hellboy steeled himself for the anger he knew was about to be unleashed.

John turned to look at Hellboy and tilted his head curiously. The demon was making a face like a child about to be scolded. Under closer inspection, John could see the tense shoulders, twitching tail, and curled fists. He wasn't entirely sure what Hellboy was expecting. The sight was a bit funny, though. He stifled a giggle, causing the demon to open one eye, then the other. John gave a laugh at the response. "What on earth are you making that face for, HB?" He tried to keep the laughing down as he asked. Hellboy blinked at him, made an ambiguous gesture with his stone hand, then shook his head.

"Why aren't you yelling at me?" He inquired finally. John tilted his head to the other side and smiled.

"Why would I?"

"Because I sent you here." Hellboy was getting a little frustrated that things were going so completely different from what he expected. He wasn't sure what to do or say with John being so...happy. It wasn't that he didn't want the agent to be happy...well...if he was honest, Hellboy realized, he did feel a little hurt that the agent was getting on so well without him. He grimaced internally at the idea. What was wrong with him that he had gotten so...possessive over John. Maybe it was seeing him in the ice; the thought of him dead.

"Red," John's voice was soft as it drew him out of his thoughts again. "I was...hurt at first. A little angry...but that was then." Hellboy could have sworn he saw a flicker of pain in the agent's red eyes before they turned to stare at the floor. "Right now, I'm really just happy to see you..." The demon felt his heart seize. John's voice had been full of raw emotion. He wasn't hiding anything in that tone. He really was happy. Hellboy brought his flesh hand up to the agent's chin, tilting his face back up.

"You...sure you don't wanna take a swing at me, kid? It's pretty fucking cold up here." His words were joking, but his tone was serious. It was hard to fathom how the man had forgiven him. He wouldn't have. Then again, he had a much worse temper than John. Said man flashed him another smile.

"Fighting the werewolves will probably warm us up though, right Red?" He shot back. Hellboy's face was unreadable to John. Usually, he was good at picking up on what his former charge was thinking. It had helped him stop a few breakouts and predict a few pranks that had been set for him. The face that the demon was giving him now was different from any of the ones he'd seen before.

Hellboy lowered his hand and looked away. "Probably right...so where's this bed that I can fight the jet lag in?" John grinned and opened the door he had stopped beside.

"I'm hoping that this will be okay for the time being. I put it together with some gel mats that we had for shock absorbers...we had a problem with harpies dragging agents up into the sky and dropping them. I'll tell you about it later. Anyhow, I got some gel mats and extra cloth and sewed together a makeshift mattress." He waved into the room. Hellboy stepped inside. The large 'bed' was tucked tightly against the wall. For a makeshift mattress, it actually looked decent. It was thick enough that Hellboy's weight wouldn't immediately crush it and make him feel like he was sleeping on the floor. The bed was covered with several large blankets, one strange covering that looked like it had been made from some kind of giant snake's shed skin that was leathery to the touch and softer than imaginable, and six fluffy pillows. Hellboy moved to sit on the bed, giving an appreciative nod. John stayed in the doorway, watching with his arms crossed and a little grin on his face.

"Not bad." John's smile widened.

"Good. I'm gonna hit the armory and I'll come get you when we're all ready. You need anything else?" Hellboy kicked off his boots.

"Nah. You go suit up." He shifted to lay back on the bed, which dipped under his weight, but still held him two feet above the ground. John felt a small swell of pride that he had guessed the right number of mats to use.

"Kay. I'll be back later." He received a wave from the demon, whose eyes were already drifting closed. John pulled the door shut quietly and gave a small, soft smile. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt like he was really....really useful. Maybe....just maybe it had been on the day he stopped being human.

 

-Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, Newark, N.J.-

John had just gotten out of the medical wing. It had been almost two weeks since the mission in Russia. He was still healing, but after staring at white walls for so long, he had begged the doctor to let him at least return to his room. He had a veritable mountain of paperwork that he could be doing. It was all there when he stepped into his room, looming on his desk like a leaning tower of Piza created from stacks of manila envelopes. 

John gave a sigh, closing his door, and sat down at his desk. He was ready for the much needed mental activity. The first envelope he opened was his mission write up from Moscow. He glanced over his desk for a pen, then opened the top drawer when one wasn't readily available.

John was surprised by the book in his drawer. It was an old, leather-bound tome with a red silk bookmark hanging from between the pages. He picked it up slowly, wondering how it had gotten there. Certainly it was from Professor Broom's library, but he didn't remember taking it. 

Curiosity slowly overtook him as he studied the book. The title of it was old, something German or Bulgarian from before the modern dialect. John could make out the word demon, just barely, and even then he was using a best guess instead of knowledge. He gently set the book on his desk, opening it to the page that was bookmarked. As the yellowed velum slid apart, a white paper dislodged from behind the bookmark, sliding out over the page. The agent recognized Professor Broom's handwriting right away. He quickly scooped up the paper to take a closer look. 

'Dear Agent Myers,

It was my intention that you did not find this letter until after my passing. I spoke to you of something similar before, but now I have a favor to ask of you. It is not the last wish of a dead man. I would not want to use my passing to guilt you into action. This is nothing more than my request for you to consider the following.

There will come a day when Hellboy will need someone that he can trust absolutely. Someone who will be unfailingly loyal and can remind him of himself when others would push him into darkness. As Hellboy does not age in the same frame as those around him, that day could come within weeks, or decades. That is why I ask you to consider this. 

Can you stand by him with unwavering loyalty, to keep him aware of who he is, and support him throughout his life? If you can, the spell marked in this book can bind you to him. You will not be human, but a gwyllgi; a hellhound able to change its form similar to the transformation of a werewolf. Your strength will be multiplied and so long as Hellboy is alive, you will be as well.

The choice is yours, Agent Myers. I hand picked you as the most likely candidate for this eventuality. If you can, and will, remain at Hellboy's side, then I will have chosen correctly.

Goodbye and Good Luck,

Professor Trevor Bruttenholm'

John swallowed hard after reading the letter. Professor Broom wanted him to stay at Hellboy's side...forever? He couldn't help wondering why he had been chosen instead of Abe or Liz. Especially Liz! She was Hellboy's love. Surely she was the one that would stay by his side.

No... John realized that the professor had chosen correctly. Even now, he wasn't worried about what would come of his own life if he did this. He wasn't afraid to lose out on a home with a family and a white picket fence. He wanted to be useful to those he cared about. And his mind held no question of whether or not he cared about Hellboy. His only misgivings were from shock that it was he who was chosen. 

The idea of giving his loyalty and his life to Hellboy needed no real question. He had seen what the demon could do. Had seen the lengths he would go to for others. Even if Hellboy acted childish or rough, he was good underneath. 

John set aside the letter, eyes looking down over the lines of text in the book. If he read them aloud, he belonged to Hellboy. He would be there for him, to fight for him, until they both died. John closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. As a child, he had grown up on his uncle's farm. He couldn't really remember what it was like to have parents. And growing up on a secluded farm, he had never had many friends. Professor Broom was a great parent to Hellboy, even down to asking this of John. Hellboy...even before they could be called friends, Hellboy was the only one who had ever tried to protect him. It was his turn. 

John licked his lips and read the spell. As the guttural dialect rolled through his lips, he felt a sense of complete satisfaction. He was the demon's hellhound now. The spell was done and John was still there, staring at the page. Then, he was on the floor, writhing in pain. He wasn't a hellhound quite yet, he realized as his body began to burn from the inside out. He wasn't there yet, but he would be. John set his jaw in a determined grimace and then his world went white in an explosion of pain that made him wish he could pass out. 

 

-Antarctica-

Hellboy couldn't sleep. He was thinking about John. The agent was confusing him more than normal. John had always been a mystery to him. He wasn't like the other agents; the ones who were happy letting him wander into danger alone and seemed to prefer staying on his good side to any actual attempt at friendship. 

John always talked to him, sometimes trying to help him puzzle out his thoughts even when the human ended up getting yelled at for helping with the something frustrating. Hellboy still remembered the look in John's eyes when he saw Samael. The agent had been terrified, but he rushed into the fight to help. He had been shaking so badly... Hellboy felt a twinge of aggravation resurfacing from that fight. He knew John was just trying to help, but the human couldn't take hits like him. Interfering like that could have killed him.

Now that he thought about it, he wasn't angry at John for intervening back then. He had been shocked and scared. Hellboy had seen a lot of agents die. He had steeled himself against it, rarely getting attached to them if he could help it. Working alone helped. He didn't have to lose anyone if he kept them out of danger. Out of his way. 

Then John had shown up and the boyscout was so damned determined to help... Something in his small, shivering frame and those earnest, fearful eyes had struck him deeply. This human...this human wouldn't leave his side. Even if it got him killed. 

Hellboy was going to get him killed. 

If John stayed around him, the kid was going to die and it was going to be all his fault.

Hellboy rolled onto his side in the bed, trying to silence his thoughts. Scout had done a good job on the bed. It was almost like a memory foam mattress, not that Hellboy could lay on a real memory foam mattress for comparison. Something that soft would sink under his weight without any resistance. Maybe that was why Liz always complained that his mattress was too stiff. He couldn't tell. It felt fine to him. He briefly wondered what she would think of this one, then shook the thought away. She wasn't here and she wasn't coming back to him. It didn't matter what she thought of it. Hellboy told himself that he only wanted a point of reference from someone with a lighter body. After all, it was his mass that made it hard for him to tell if the mattress really was hard or not. 

An image of John laying on the bed when he'd made it flickered to life in Hellboy's mind. He chuckled to himself. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the boyscout had flopped down onto the mattress to test it. He imagined the agent red-faced from the work, hair slightly mussed when he laid down. It was a more enticing image than he expected. Something about the idea of John in his bed, blushing and rumpled, awakened his lower body. 

Hellboy raised a hand to his face as he realized that he was getting turned on...by John, no less. His embarrassment didn't stop the train his thoughts were on, however, and he found himself picturing the man naked. It wasn't that hard. He had seen John in the gym at the BPRD, leaving the swimming pool in next to nothing. He remembered the agent's smooth torso, lined with lithe muscles that had been well hidden under his usual clothes. John had pale skin, only a couple of little scars on his slim form, and it seemed to shimmer slightly beneath the sheen of water. It probably shimmered under his sweat too. Hellboy groaned at the thought. 

Fuck. 

He was getting impossibly hard at the thought of John like that. The agent, nude and sweating, red in the face with his body quivering and little pants of air escaping his mouth as he begged... begged in that sweet little voice of his for Hellboy to fuck him.

The demon sat bolt upright, cursing to himself. He couldn't be thinking like that. For one, it was rude to the man that was occupying his thoughts. He didn't even want to imagine the shock on the boyscout's face if he found out. Another thing, though far less of a moral quandary, was that his clothes were in a case rather far away. Most likely in the hangar by now, but still too far for him to walk in soiled pants. Hellboy took a deep breath, trying to think about something else to calm him down. It wasn't easy, considering most of the blood that should be fueling his brain had abandoned the vital organ to head somewhere south. He swore again. 

He had to get his act together. They had a mission to go on soon. Hellboy took another breath and thought about the most disgusting monsters he'd ever fought. He thought about Samael drooling from the ceiling and the creepy tooth-fairy things. The stuff could have been someone else's nightmare, but as his heart rate calmed and the heat in his groin started to die, he was actually happy to have seen some of the incredibly fucked up shit that he did.

Hellboy realized how perfect his timing had been when a red light over the door began flashing. A siren was wailing through the base, a female voice calling a 'Code Red' alarm. He started pulling his boots on. When he was lacing up the last one, there came a loud rapping on his door. He pulled the laces tight and knotted them before getting up to open it. John was standing there, his hood down and a large gun perched on his hip. 

"Hey! They're playing our song Red." He beamed up at the demon. Hellboy chuckled at the boyscout's reference.

"Lead the way, scout." He pulled out the Samaratin. John gave a quick nod, turning to go back out the way that they had come in. 

The halls seemed to pass a lot quicker this time around, doors blurring as they passed them. When they got back to the burgundy room, there were three agents trying to stabilize a fourth who looked like he had seen better days. Blood was leaking out of what looked like a really nasty gash. John didn't stop with the other agents, instead opening the door to the next room.

In no time at all, they were back at the ice lake. Hellboy kept his eyes carefully averted. He didn't know if the lake would try to draw him in again, but he didn't really want to find out. As they neared the stairs to the hangar, the sounds of a fight hit them. There were guns firing, people shouting. Whatever they were shooting at, it wasn't going down. 

John took the steps two at a time, arriving at the top a few seconds before Hellboy. They both stopped. The scene in front of them was gruesome. The hangar was lined with agents, each shooting at the giant werewolf on the tarmac. The white wolf was stained in blood, but not nearly as much as the snow on the runway. From the boots that they could see sprawled around the area, it looked like the wolf had massacred at least four people. Now the thing was absorbing the bullets that the agents pumped into it like they were nothing, munching idly on an arm.

A loud growl rang through the hangar. A few of the agents glanced back, then kept firing as if they knew the source wasn't a threat, but Hellboy looked around quickly. For a moment, he thought that another werewolf was in the hangar, until he realized that the sound was coming from right beside him. 

From John. 

He stared at the agent in shock. "John...?" He asked cautiously. The agent looked up at him, eyes flashing and glowing wildly.

"I'll take care of this. Hold my gun." He passed the weapon to Hellboy before the demon could protest, stalking towards the line of agents shooting at the werewolf.

"John!" The kid didn't look back at him and Hellboy stared at him in surprise. There wasn't a hint of fear on the boyscout's face. The demon wanted to step in and keep this human...no, he reminded himself, John said he wasn't human anymore, but that didn't keep Hellboy from wanting to force him back to safety. His protective instinct eased a little when he saw John start to transform. Only a little, though.

The change always hurt a little at first. Mostly because John had to leave his clothes on when he was in his human form for fear of freezing, but said clothes were ripping and digging into his skin as he changed. His teeth grew sharper, face elongating into a muzzle. His shoulders cracked, pulling back. His legs started to curl and he felt the bones crunching as they moved inside him. He was forced to all fours as fur coated him. His clothing was pinching so he turned his head back to tear it away with his teeth. His dark brown fur spread to his hands as they became paws, sharp claws growing out of them. His spine started to stretch, pushing down and back as his long tail forced its way out. 

A few more cracks sounded as his body settled. The last bit was the worst. Fire in his veins carved out etchings in his skin and fur, leaving glowing red markings all over his body. He was covered in demonic runes that gleamed the same color as his eyes. The pain blossomed into adrenaline as the change was completed. He shook, feeling the cold sift through his fur, and fixed his eyes on the werewolf again.

Hellboy stared at John in awe. He was a wolf...well kind of. His face was particularly wolf-like, long and pointed. His ears stood up the same as a wolf too. He wasn't nearly as big as the werewolf on the tarmac, though. John was only about the size of a mastiff and his fur was short like one too. His tail almost looked like a smaller copy of Hellboy's, except coated in a layer of brown fur and etched with glowing red symbols. 

He wasn't sure how John could be out in the arctic cold with such short fur, but he wasn't even shivering. He was growling, ears flat against his head. The agents had stopped shooting, all of them turning to look at John as if they knew that he was better than any gun they had. Hellboy watched as the dog-John loped out onto the tarmac. He wasn't sure what to do. He could try to help, but shooting with Samaratin was just as likely to hurt John as the other wolf if they were too close. He moved up with the line of agents, staring at the boyscout and unable to figure out what to do.

John's nose was filled with the smell of blood. He could smell the men that had died; they were crew from the cargo plane that had brought in supplies. It tugged at the feral instinct inside him. They hadn't even been involved with this fight. They were just delivering the essentials to the base. On any other day, they would have gone home to their families afterwards. Killing them was inexcusable. 

He gave a bark to get the wolf's attention. It looked up at him and growled. They recognized each other's scent. This wasn't their first fight. John had killed this one's mate. It wasn't like he had a choice. 

The werewolf started to move with him, the two of them circling each other that they sized their opponent up. The werewolf had the size advantage, but it remembered that this one had strange powers. John growled low in his throat. He was ready to go. He tilted his head, baring his neck to the werewolf in a challenge. The wolf took the bait, snarling as it lept at John, who dropped and spun. He took a snap at the werewolf, his teeth digging into its right hip. The wolf yowled and kicked him. John skidded a few feet away.

The blood dripping from John's mouth had Hellboy in mental agony. Everything in him screamed that he should be out there fighting, instead of scout. He knew the blood was from the werewolf, but even the idea of John bleeding was enough to make him grind his teeth in aggravation. 

A hand fell on his shoulder. He rounded on its owner, prepared to give them a few choice words, until he saw that it was Abe. The icthyo sapien gave him a small nod. 

"He will be fine, Red. John knows what he's doing." He assured him gently. Hellboy turned his eyes back to the fight. 

So what if John knew what he was doing out there? What about what the boyscout was doing to him? The idea of letting him fight alone was eating him up inside.

John lowered his head as the werewolf started to approach him again. It was growling low, limping slightly from the wound John had given it. He shifted his weight, the pads of his paws melting snow under his feet. He could use a more powerful attack to end this quickly, but then he would be exhausted. They still had to find the den where the other two wolves were. He didn't want to waste his strength here. 

The werewolf lunged, snapping at John's face. He fell to the left, planting his paws to push himself forward, then turned, leaping for the werewolf's outstretched throat. His teeth ripped into soft flesh and blood gushed into his mouth. The wolf gave a strangled howl, trying to shake John loose. He didn't let go as its paws scraped at him. Claws tore his shoulders as the wolf tried to push him down. He jerked his head, pulling another spray of blood from the wolf. A claw nicked his ear as it struggled. 

John gave one final pull, feeling something rip, and backed away with a mouthful of the werewolf's throat. It gave a gurgling rasp, eyes gleaming at John with hatred, before laying down slowly. Several rattling attempts to draw in air sounded. Its heart pumped out blood onto the snow. One beat, two, three. Then everything stopped. The wolf was gone. 

John set the piece of its throat on the snow, taking a few steps up to sniff the shrinking body. The werewolf was changing back to a human form. He, John now took notice of his gender for the first time, was one of their agents. John felt a pang of regret and nosed the man's face gently.

"I'm sorry..." He whispered, voice quiet. 

Other agents started to come out onto the bloody tarmac. One of them, Parker ....something...., reached out to give John's head a gentle pat. He turned away from the gesture, moving back to the hangar. He couldn't accept congratulations or comfort. He did what he had to do, but that didn't numb the pain of knowing that he had just killed a fellow agent.

Hellboy stared at John as he came back towards him. His shoulders were cut up, fur slightly matted from the blood, and there was a small chunk missing from his ear. Worst of all was the way that the boyscout hung his head. He might've just been tired, but Hellboy knew better. He crouched down as John got closer, bringing them eye level. 

"You look like shit scout." He commented, expecting a bark or a growl from the dog-agent. What he got was a soft chuckle. John looked up at him, scarlet eyes dulling now that the battle was over.

"He...he was an agent that had been turned, HB...It's hard to feel too victorious." John's voice drifted out of the dog's mouth without it moving. It almost seemed like a telepathic voice, yet Hellboy knew that he had very clearly heard the words.

He grimaced sympathetically, reaching out with his flesh hand to pet the soft fur on John's head in front of him. "Sorry, scout." He grunted. He wasn't good at comforting people. He wasn't good at anything that had to do with the touchy-feely emotion crap. However, his efforts seemed successful as John's tail gave a single wag.

"It's okay, Red. I know it had to happen...." He nuzzled Hellboy's hand; an action that the demon couldn't describe as anything other than cute.

"Then lets get inside....before we both freeze our tails off." He gave John a wry grin that the dog before him chuckled at.

"Yeah...I need a bath..." He turned his head to Abe. "The agent that was injured, is he...?" He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to. Abe gave a small nod.

"Agent Walters is alive and uninfected. He sustained only claw wounds and the lycanthropy was not transferred to him." He informed calmly. John nodded, Hellboy couldn't bring himself to say how silly it looked, and they headed back down the stairs.

The boyscout seemed not to care as blood dripped from his fur the entire way. They passed each set of double doors, John having Hellboy key in his code at the first. They found the burgundy room vacant when they reached it, and John turned to the first door in the long hallway that followed. 

He raised a paw to push down the handle and the door swung wide. Hellboy contemplated that this probably wasn't the first time John had done this in his dog form. He followed him into the room before realizing it was a locker room for the agents. John seemed not to care, moving to the showers along the far wall and pushing the hot water on with his nose. Hellboy found it hard to look away from the sight of a dog sitting under the spray of the water, pointed nose raised into the water's arching path. It was amusing, in a grim living-with-the-paranormal sort of way. 

The demon slowly moved to sit on one of the benches, hearing the metal groan softly. John opened his eyes at the sound, ears that had been plastered back on his head flicking forward as he turned to look at Hellboy.

"Uh...sorry. Did you want me to..." He motioned to the door. John's voice chuckled again, despite his mouth being closed.

"It's fine, HB. I was just lost in my thoughts." His head tilted down to look at the red swirling in the water that stretched between him and the drain. "I guess the hot water made me faze out or something..." 

Hellboy watched his back twitch as the tense muscles started relaxing. John was no longer caked in blood, letting him get a good look at the dog form for the second time. He almost looked like a werewolf with much shorter hair, with the exception of his glowing red eyes and the runes that decorated his body.

"John...." He saw the dog's ears prick up at the use of his given name. "What are you now?" Hellboy asked reluctantly. He didn't know if it was going to upset John for him to ask. After all, the boyscout had said it happened before the transfer to Antarctica. That meant it had happened on Hellboy's watch. Red eyes turned to look at him. They had lost all of the glow, but were still bright and intense.

"I'm a gwyllgi...a hellhound." He answered softly. Hellboy started, eyes widening at him. John knew he'd get that reaction. He stood up, turning to let the water hit the few still-bloody parts of him. His eyes were locked on Hellboy's own amber ones. 

He wasn't sure if he would have to reveal everything to the demon now. If he told him that Professor Broom had given him the spell to bind him to Hellboy; to make him Hellboy's hound, would his friend be able to accept that?

Hellboy was dumbstruck. John...sweet, innocent, blush-when-anyone-makes-a-dirty-joke John....was a hellhound. John and demonic didn't fit in the same sentence, unless of course it referred to Hellboy, and John being demonic was impossible. 

'Not if someone forced it on him', his brain reminded him, 'someone might have hurt poor little John to turn him into this and it happened all when you could have protected him'. 

Hellboy cursed himself internally. How could he let this happen? How could he let someone hurt John and not even notice? 'Because I was so wrapped up in Liz', he realized, 'I wasn't there when he needed me....in fact, I shoved him away right after that...' He was so consumed in his own thoughts that he didn't notice when John came over to him.

"Hellboy?" The soft voice broke through his inner turmoil. He found himself staring into John's crimson eyes.

"Did...it hurt...?" He could barely grind out the words, his throat constricting tightly. John blinked, turning his head away.

"Hellboy..." The demon grimaced. He was going to avoid the question. It must have hurt...quite a lot if John didn't want to admit it.

"Fuck, scout...you could've said something...." He breathed, glaring at the floor between them. He was mad at himself for not noticing, mad at John for not telling him...even a little bit mad at Abe because he had probably known about it and never said anything.

"It was my choice, Red...it wasn't...like I was attacked or anything..." Hellboy's eyes flicked up into his. He stared John down, making the agent squirm a little as the tension grew between them.

"What?" Hellboy growled. John turned slightly, then got up to walk back over to the shower. He didn't get very far when Hellboy's flesh hand closed around the middle of his tail.

"That's...HB let go. My tail's sensitive." He tried not to whine. John could feel the heat radiating from the demon's hand. It was nice after being out in the snow, but he didn't really like his tail being used as a handle.

"You did it to yourself?" Hellboy didn't let go. Wasn't going to let go. John had made himself a demonic dog from the pit of Hell. That wasn't a bombshell he could just drop and walk away from.

".....Yes...." John tried to take a step forward, but Hellboy's hand kept him firmly rooted where he was.

"Why?" John swallowed. For the first time, he found himself hating his tail. It could only have been worse if the demon had him on a leash.

"Does it really matter? I'm faster...stronger...I heal faster. Look at the cuts on my shoulders. They should be about gone by now." Hellboy's eyes trailed up to his thin shoulders. It was true that the deep cuts were little more than red welts. That still didn't explain why John had become a hellhound.

"It matters to me, Myers." The low growl was getting a bit dangerous. John sighed in defeat and turned, nosing Hellboy's hand to get him to let go of his tail.

"If you let go of my tail, I'll tell you...I don't want to chance you getting mad and snapping it in half....not sure if it grows back." He looked up, recieving a warning look from the demon. It was quite clearly a 'you run and you'll regret it' look. The hand opened slowly, letting his tail slip away. 

John gave a small, very dog-like huff and sat on the floor to look up at him. The still-running water behind them became white noise as the silence stretched between them.

"Talk, John." Hellboy finally broke the silence, his impatience adding a little bite to his tone.

"Right...okay..." John stood up and started pacing. He had been in his dog form enough times that he barely registered the difference between four legs pacing and two. "Well, after Moscow..." He looked up at Hellboy to be sure the demon knew what he meant. After recieving a nod, John continued. "I found a book in my room...from Professor Bruttenholm." He glanced at Hellboy again, seeing him straighten at the mention of his father. The little light that came to his eyes gave John a small swell of happiness.

"Father...?" Hellboy's low question was almost raspy. John wanted to pat him on the shoulder comfortingly, but couldn't due to his form.

"He left the book in my desk...with a note for me." John sat down in front of him again. "I...I still have the note...but he told me that the page he had marked in the book could change me...into this." Hellboy stared at him.

"Father...told you to do this?" He murmured in shock. John stood up with a growl and his ears flattened against his head.

"NO! It was MY choice!" He snapped. Hellboy jumped, watching John with wide eyes. The kid seemed offended to have him thinking that this was anyone's doing but his own. What was so important about it being solely his choice that he was getting angry?

"Then...why did you choose it?" There was a long pause. The sound of the shower seemed to grow louder in the quiet. John gave another huff, turning back to the shower. He prodded the knob with his nose until it turned off.

".............It tied me to you..." John answered at last, not looking at him. Hellboy watched him, not entirely certain that he'd heard correctly.

"Come again?"

"You getting deaf in your old age?" The demon growled at the joke, narrowing his eyes. "Relax...I didn't mean it." He slowly turned around. 

Hellboy noticed that John's tail was tucked up under his back legs and his head was low. The agent was nervous...no, he was downright scared. Hellboy racked his brain to figure out what on earth was so bad in what he was saying that John had a reason to be scared.

"John..."

"I did it because it tied me to you...I am your hound..." John turned slowly, raising his head to look at him. "The spell I used sealed my promise...to be loyal to you for until you die. My life is tied to yours. I will die for you if I have to and if you die...I do too." 

Hellboy found himself gawking at the agent. John just said that he was bound to him. What the hell did that mean? He would die to protect him?! What kind of shit was that? Hellboy didn't need protected! If anything, the boyscout needed to be protected.

"What...the fuck...? Why would I need you to die for me?! Hell no!" John sank close to the ground, ears pressed down to his head.

"It's not so much for me to die for you....but I can stay by your side if you need me." He offered softly. "It lets me live to be here...if you need a friend...or anything at all." 

Hellboy grimaced at him. What was his father thinking, telling John about this? Was he thinking John could be...what? His babysitter forever? Hellboy stood up, shooting John a glare. The boyscout did this without even consulting him! Here he was, acting like Hellboy couldn't take care of himself! It wasn't like he had been there to help when they fought Nuada and the Golden Army!

"For you to be here for me...what the fuck does that mean, boyscout?" He growled, seeing the agent flinch. "Looks to me like you've been in the middle of a fucking ice block, nowhere near me until I came up here."

John balked at the words. Hellboy was so angry at him. He could feel it. It wasn't like Antarctica was his fault! He wanted to stay at the demon's side, but Hellboy sent him away. 

The bitterness and anger over the event started to rise in him again. Tears were stinging his eyes. How could he be such an ass about this? John had just told him that he would be loyal to him forever. It was a good thing, yet here he was throwing it back in his face that he had been sent to cold ass Antarctica over a girl that always, always, always left! 

John started for the door. He had to get out of here. He had to find somewhere to calm down.

Hellboy watched as John padded his way to the door and out of the room. He cursed quietly. What the fuck was he doing, getting angry at John about Antarctica when they both knew whose fault it was. He sighed heavily, lowering his head to his hands. If John wasn't mad at him about it before, he definitely would be now. The boyscout hadn't even done anything to deserve all this.... It was just a misunderstanding...and Hellboy being a jealous dickhead at the time... No wonder Liz had yelled at him about it.

 

-Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, Newark, N.J.-

"What the hell have you done?!" Liz had come storming into Hellboy's room, her hands covered in flames. Hellboy looked up from a magazine with a blurry photo of him on the cover.

"What?" He asked around the cigar in his mouth.

"John's gone. Transferred to Antarctica. Manning said it was because of you. How could you do that to him, Red?! After everything he's done for you!" She let the fires in her hands go out, but her anger didn't seem to calm.

"He said he liked the cold...." He turned his gaze back to the magazine. 

Liz had talked about leaving again the week before. He mentioned it to Myers and the next thing he knew, the two of them were out for coffee. If Myers was such a good guy, why was he trying to steal Liz?

"You're such an ass! He was your friend, Red! And mine!" Liz waved her hands. Hellboy looked up at her again.

"Oh yeah? What kinda friend tries to steal his friend's girl?" He groused. Liz's eyes went wide, then narrowed at him.

"Dear god, is that what this was about?! John and I going for coffee!" She hissed. Hellboy shrugged, even though they both knew she'd hit the nail on the head. "Damnitt Red! John took me out to talk and spent the entire time telling me how great you are! He was trying to convince me not to go anywhere!" She shouted. 

Hellboy blinked, too surprised to find a response. Boyscout was talking him up to Liz...? He was trying to get her to stay...not to get her to go out with him? 

Liz sat down on the bed with a heavy sigh. "Damnitt Red...John is loyal to you without so much as a moment's hesitation and you just sent him to the edge of the world..."

 

-Antarctica-

John made a trip to his room for a set of clothes, changing into his human form so that he could slip them on. His dog form was warmer, but he didn't have the energy to keep it and he might still need it later. He was especially tired after Hellboy had pushed so hard to find out about it, then promptly got mad at him. 

He sighed, turning towards the armory. Abe and Krauss were probably there. He didn't know too much about the ectoplasm specialist, but John knew that he could relax around Abe. Relaxation was precisely what he needed at the moment. 

He didn't want to be angry at Hellboy for sending him to Antarctica. He liked him too much for that. Liked him more than he should, if he was honest with himself. In hindsight, it was almost funny that Hellboy had thought he was flirting with Liz. It wasn't like he had told the demon the truth about himself outright, but it wasn't that hard for someone to guess that he was gay. They could probably tell that after seeing him talk to Liz for an hour without once glancing below her shoulders. Even the nicest straight guy in the world would have at least looked at her body once. 

John, on the other hand, wasn't the least bit interested. He liked Liz. She was fun to talk to and usually pretty open with him. Still, there was nothing between the two of them. The only reason he'd even spoken to Liz in the first place was in order to bring her back to Hellboy. From the very beginning, John wanted nothing more than to make Hellboy happy.

He reached the armory in record time, not realizing that his walking had sped up to match the pace of his thoughts as they zipped through his head. He typed in the code to the vault door, letting it swing open slowly.

The vault was the brightest room in the base. It was lit from the walls, where lights were concealed behind white glass. Racks and shelves of weaponry hung around the walls, waiting to be used. Abe and Krauss were standing around a small island in the middle of the room, a map spread out between them. Neither looked up when he walked in. John bypassed them for the moment, grabbing a few extra clips for his Glock and slipping them into his belt.

"I am sorry that Red took the news so poorly John." Abe's voice rang in the tiny room, drawing John's eyes. The agent gave a slow nod.

"It's okay Abe...I couldn't really expect anything else." His voice betrayed his words, growing sad and soft at the end. Abe raised his head to the agent, blinking at him with dark eyes.

"He does not understand the meaning of what you did yet, John. Give him time. He will come around." The icthyo sapien assured him. John fixed him with a weak smile.

"Thanks, Abe...I'm...hoping that he will." He closed his eyes and leaned back on the counter that provided a small workspace under the weapon racks. "So what's the plan? We should only have two wolves left to take care of." He turned his mind to business, where work was much more straightforward than figuring out things with Hellboy.

"Ve plan to take two snowmobiles to the verevolf den. Abe and I vill ride one and you can pilot the other vith Hellboy." John held down a protest. Hellboy would deal with him long enough for the mission. "Ve can conduct a sveep through the den, eliminate the volves, and verify that they are the last ones." 

Abe pointed to a place on the map. "There are ice caves here that we will need to avoid, one in particular that is very deep. It would be best to keep away from them until we are sure that the wolves are dead. Confronting the wolves in there could be extremely dangerous." John nodded slowly.

"Got it. If you can keep an eye on the map, will you be able to tell if we're getting too close?" He turned, looking over the walls until he found a length of thick rope and the grappling hook, which he added to his belt.

"Of course. It is also a possibility that there may be more wolves there than we previously estimated. If that occurs, we may need some manner of distraction to get away." Abe added, gills giving the little flair that showed his nervousness. John smiled at him gently. It had taken him a while to get used to the sapien's non-verbal ques, but now he was glad that he had if he could offer his friend a bit of comfort.

"I'll grab a blasting kit. If there are too many for us to handle, we can blow the cave and block them in. It'll take them a bit of time to get around the blockage so we should have no problem." Abe seemed to perk up a little at his suggestion.

"That is a very creative distraction, Agent Myers. Vhat vas your job before getting involved vith the paranormal?" John moved to take a blasting kit from beneath the counter to his left.

"FBI, but I was brought in right after Quantico by Professor Broom." He said absently, checking the contents of the box.

"Yeah. That's why boyscout was still wet behind the ears when we fought Samael and he almost got creamed by a car." Hellboy rumbled. John almost dropped the box in his hands, which could have reduced all of them to a fine mist if it were armed, and looked up at the demon with wide eyes. He hadn't shown him where the armory was, so he wasn't really expecting him to be there.

"It was my first mission against something like that! How was I supposed to know what a 'hound of resurection' was like?" He straightened. Hellboy chuckled.

"Well, lucky for you, you're not as slimy of a hellhound as ol' Sammy was." John grimaced. It had, at one point, crossed his mind that he was lucky not to look like the grotesque Samael.

"Especially out here. I'd be a..." He blinked, losing the word on the tip of his tongue.

"Pup-cicle?" Hellboy supplied. John broke out into a grin and laughed.

"Exactly." The two of them snickered childishly until Abe cleared his throat. John fought down his smile. "S-sorry Abe." 

The icthyo sapien waved a hand dismissively. He was glad to see the tension between the two had eased slightly. "We should probably get down to business before the wolves have a chance to attack us again. It would severely cripple the base to lose any more agents." He folded up the map, placing it in a zippered pocket. John nodded.

"I'll go pull out the snowmobiles." He slipped past Hellboy, giving the demon a light pat on the arm before dissapearing down the hall. Hellboy watched him go, a slight smile playing over his features. He looked back at the other occupants of the room in time to see Abe and Krauss move as if they had traded a look. Admittedly it was hard to tell when one of them didn't have any eyes.

"What?" He asked, not addressing one of them in particular. Abe tilted his head slightly, stepping around the table.

"You seem to have recovered from the shock John gave you." Hellboy frowned.

"Don't do that." He grunted sternly.

"I didn't read you Red. John was broadcasting his worry about your anger when he got down here." The sapien explained. Hellboy swallowed, starting to feel guilty again.

"I hurt him, didn't I?" He looked at his friend, then lowered his eyes.

"Yes." Sometimes Hellboy hated Abe's brutal honesty. "But he doe not want to be angry with you. You probably do not understand what it meant for him to become a hellhound, but John puts all of his trust in you." 

Hellboy leaned back against the wall, raising his flesh hand to rub his brow where he felt a headache developing.

"Damn...kid's got more faith in me than I do..." He mumbled. Abe tilted his head again, observing him curiously.

"You've developed feelings for him." Hellboy raised his eyes to Abe's in a glare.

"Okay, that time you read me." He growled. Abe 'hmm'ed and walked past him.

"We ought to go catch up with John." Hellboy stared at his retreating back for a long moment before giving up the attempt to glare and following.

When they reached the hangar, John had already gotten the snowmobiles prepped and ready. He was standing outside with them, eyes fixed on the sky. It had stopped snowing a while ago, but the sky looked ready to begin again at any moment. He turned his gaze to the others as they approached, flashing a wry smile. "We had better do this fast. We wouldn't want to be caught out there in a blizzard." Hellboy gave him an incredulous look.

"How can you tell if it gets any worse? It's white snow on practically white sky and white ground..." John chuckled and pulled a pair of goggles up over his eyes.

"Well usually the ground and the sky don't hit you in the face unless you crash." He was rewarded for the joke by a little laugh from the demon. Krauss took up the driving position on one of the snowmobiles, with Abe slipping onto the seat behind him. John moved to take the driving spot of the other vehicle. Hellboy was eyeing the snowmobiles dubiously.

"That thing gonna hold my weight, scout?" John smirked, pulling a plastic mask up to guard the lower part of his face from the wind.

"Of course, Red. Now climb aboard. You're riding bitch." Hellboy glared halfheartedly and sat on the back of the vehicle, slipping his flesh arm around John's middle.

"I'll make you regret that after we get back from the mission." He growled into the agent's ear, squeezing around his middle to punctuate the point. John was greatful to his mask for hiding the rapidly spreading blush on his cheek.

"Right...um...Moving out then." He started his snowmobile, revving it a couple of times before taking off. He knew Abe and Krauss would follow behind him. He was the only one that knew where they were headed.

The wind whipped past the snowmobiles, tearing and tugging at every inch of them. The werewolf den was almost half and hour away from the hangar. It was surprising that they had even interacted with the people at the base to begin with. Although, it got less surprising when they had seen how emaciated the wolves were at first. The base was just the nearest source of food for the werewolves out in the cold wasteland. 

Unfortunately for the agents that worked there, they were the food. It was the general concensus of the base that they didn't want to wipe out an entire pack of werewolves, but they had been reduced down to no other choice. These wolves wouldn't hunt elsewhere, and they couldn't be appeased with anything less than live meat.

As they came within sight of the icy ridge where the werewolves had made their den, John suddenly felt an instinctive twinge. Someone...something was watching them. Almost too late, he jerked the snowmobile around. The charging werewolf that had been hiding in the mass of white hit the front of the snowmobile instead of striking them broadside. 

The wolf growled, muzzle oozing blood from a broken nose over the hood of the vehicle. John reached for his gun, but Hellboy was faster. The demon leveled the Samaratin with the wolf's head. John saw what was going to happen, opening his mouth too late to shout for him to stop. The blast from the Samaratin cut him off, leaving his ears ringing from the sound, and the werewolf jumped out of the way. The bullet missed it's target, instead burrying itself deep inside the front of the snowmobile. 

John scrambled up from the vehicle, grabbing Hellboy's right hand in two of his to pull him away. They disentangled themselves from the snowmobile before the werewolf took another leap onto it. John raised his Glock, firing several shots. He hit the wolf's jaw and nose. If he could hit the thing's eye...

Samaratin fired again, sounding almost like a cannon compared to John's smaller gun. The bullet tore through the werewolf's thigh. It snarled and lept at Hellboy. The demon caught its jaw over his stone hand. The gnashing teeth scraped uselessly on the stone. John took aim again, firing a bullet into the werewolf's eye. It spasmed, but didn't go down. Hellboy leveled the Samaratin with the creature's heart, firing the loud gun again. 

All at once, the wolf went limp. Hellboy jerked his arm free, letting the wolf fall heavily to the snow. He looked up at John. The agent was panting through his mask, letting out small puffs of steam. His arms were still locked, holding the gun level with the wolf. It was shrinking, turning into a small woman with dark skin and hair. 

John hesitantly slipped his gun back into its holster before kneeling down to look at the face. Her face was pretty before John's bullet. It took Hellboy a minute to realize that the boyscout was trying to figure out if she was an agent. After a moment, he rose and shook his head. Abe and Krauss pull up alongside them, turning their snowmobile off. Abe cast a glance down at the girl, head tilting sadly at the sight.

"She wasn't an agent...probably part of the original pack." John supplied. Abe nodded silently. John looked back over at their second snowmobile. "Two of us are gonna have to stay here and wait for the others to come back with another snowmobile. Ours has a bullet in the steering column." Hellboy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Oh...that was...my bad..." He looked so embarrassed that John couldn't help a little laugh.

"Relax, HB. We clear that last wolf out and...provided that's all of them, we'll be sheltered in the cave just fine." He looked at Abe and Krauss. "You two should probably be the ones to go back to base after this. Hellboy and I both have higher body temperatures and can wait longer out here." They both voiced their agreement. John looked up at the demon beside him.

"Well, lets go give the last resident its eviction notice." He raised his left hand to his shoulder, Samaratin gleaming in the light. John chuckled. He pulled his Glock back out, walking towards the icy ridge ahead of them.

The caves in the arctic were treacherous, even without giant werewolves prowling through them. They were made of solid ice, making every footstep another chance to fall. The walls were ridged and blue, reflecting the light when John turned his flashlight on. He wasn't sure who exactly would need the flashlight. His eye sight was as good as any of the werewolves'. Hellboy and Abe might, but it was something that John had never really asked them about in order to know. As it was, he held the light over his raised gun, arms crossed to keep his hand steady. 

The caves went deep into the ground, slanting lightly and curling back under themselves. As the group got deeper under the surface, they became less smooth. They were lined with icy stalactites, several of which Hellboy managed to crack his head on with a swear. They came to a fork in the path and Abe moved to the front. His arm was outstretched as he checked both passages before motioning to the right.

"I'm sensing one down this path. There do not seem to be any others." He turned back to them. "It is close to the cave that I warned you about earlier. If it retreats inside, I urge you not to follow." John nodded, giving him a gentle pat on the shoulder with the hand holding his flashlight.

"Thanks Abe." He took up the lead again. Hellboy was watching John carefully. The boyscout seemed to fit into the leader role perfectly. It was strange for him seeing the agent with so much confidence. Then again, John had spent a lot of time on missions like this. He came to Antarctica after becoming a hellhound, so he would have been able to take point with some of the tougher monsters that he could never have dealt with as a human. Hellboy moved his eyes over John's back, eyeing the raised shoulders and steady hand. Confidence looked good on him. Boyscout was still cute when he stammered or blushed, but this side of him was just plain hot.

"Ehem. Red. Could you please keep your attention on the mission?" Abe's voice asked from behind him. Hellboy grunted, too embarrassed to attempt more of a response than that. Okay, so maybe he should save those thoughts for later. Perhaps when he was alone in the caves with scout.

John held up a hand to stop the others behind him, holding his breath. He could hear movement ahead. A lot of it. It didn't sound like just one werewolf. He closed his eyes, listening hard to the noise coming from the caves ahead. Scratches, then cracks... Heavy breathing. John frowned deeply. The sounds weren't unusual for the werewolves, but there had to be more than one. 

He looked at the others and held his hand out for them to stay, then dropped into a crouch and moved closer to the next cave. He moved slowly to his destination, keeping his breathing quiet. As he came to the cave, he saw a trace of light. The next cave had a small fire pit in the center. The remains of a crate from the base were crackling in the pit, casting dancing shadows on the room. 

It took John a moment to spot the werewolf. It wasn't in this cave, but the next one. It was in the one that Abe had warned them against. The wolf was leaning over the side of an icy path, a stick in its mouth with one end on fire. John frowned, rising to his full height to try and see what the wolf was doing. As his eyes fell upon the sight below the ridge, his blood ran cold. 

The werewolf was holding the makeshift torch down to an ice encased creature far bigger than anything John had seen since Russia. The cracking he had heard was the ice. The ice was melting. John swallowed. Whatever the thing beneath the ice was, that werewolf seemed certain that it would be an ally. That meant they were better off leaving it frozen. He turned, hurrying back to the others.

"The wolf....it's trying to defrost something big." He looked at Abe. "I don't know what it is, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's the dragon that carved out the cave our base is in." He swallowed. The idea of fighting an ice dragon wasn't appealing. Especially not when the thing could breathe out streams of icy air and all of them were already cold.

"Can't we just shoot the wolf?" Hellboy hefted the Samaratin to emphasize his point.

"I'm afraid it'll drop the torch. If it does, we might not be able to grab it before the thing unfreezes." John shook his head.

"The wolf is in the cave that I asked you not to go into?" Abe frowned at John. He nodded.

"Unfortunately..." He glanced back the way he'd come. "I think I've gotta do this one...but if my clothes start ripping, the wolf will hear it."

"We could make some noise and get him to come to us." Hellboy put his stone hand on John's shoulder. He didn't like the idea of leaving him to do this alone. John looked up at him.

"What if he drops the torch HB?" He shook his head. "I've gotta do this myself...you guys can wait at the entrance to the cave to give me backup if you get the chance." John pulled down his hood to peel off his hat, goggles, and mask. "Maybe someone can keep an eye on my clothes? I'm hoping I can put them back on after..." His face flushed in a mix of cold and blushing.

Hellboy's eyes widened as he realized that John was about to strip down naked in the middle of the cave. He gave a low growl, stepping between scout and the others. The agent looked up at him, pulling off his coat. His confusion faded into a smile when he caught on. He continued to strip, peeling off a jacket, sweater, long sleeved shirt, and long johns. As the layers hit the ground, the boyscout started shivering uncontrollably. Hellboy scowled, taking a step closer to him in an attempt to give him a little body heat. John chuckled, kicking off the rest of his clothes. 

By the time that he was completely bare, John's skin had taken on a blue tinge. He was going to be hypothermic before too long. He licked his lips, eyes meeting Hellboy's again. They started to glow brightly. John moved away from the demon as he changed. The process was strange, even the second time Hellboy saw it. Watching the bones shift underneath John's skin, the fur emerging over his pale form; it looked like it hurt. Hellboy scooped up the boyscout's clothes in his right hand, following after him quietly.

John padded his way into the fire-lit cave, then approached the other canine quietly. The werewolf was still trying to melt the ice. The ice of the path seemed treacherous. The white wolf's paws slid towards the edge as it leaned. When it could no longer hold the torch down without a chance of falling, it slowly lifted its head while it regained its footing on the path. 

John took his chance. He sprang out onto the path, reaching out to clamp his teeth around the torch. The werewolf started in shock, then growled at him loudly, tugging to pull the stick free. The wood bent softly under their teeth, a few splinters rising to stab each of them in the gums. John snarled back, digging his teeth deeper into the wood. The werewolf jerked its head, sending the flaming end of the stick into John's side. It connected with little force, the blunt edge not striking hard enough to even bruise. The agent growled, but merely shook his head to try pulling it free. He wasn't worried about the fire jabbing into his fur. An upside to being a hellhound was that he was fireproof. The two canines jerked on their respective ends of the stick, letting their throats deliver the threatening noises that they would act upon if they were ever able to fight properly.

A loud crack distracted them both. John's eyes fell to the scaly creature beneath the ice. It was moving. The long, lithe body was shifting beneath the ice; scales pressed up into the half formed cracks on the surface. They had gotten there too late. 

John pulled the stick away from the werewolf, watching it raise its head proudly. They both knew that it no longer needed the flame to melt the ice. John growled, backing into the other cave. As he got to the entrance, Krauss took the flaming stick from him. Abe leaned down to John. "The ice dragon is awake. It is hungry and very...very angry." He informed him softly.

"How do I kill an ice dragon, Abe?" He eyed the lengthening crack in the ice. The werewolf in the center of the path raised its head to give a victorious howl.

"Fire would be a good start." John chuckled.

"Well, it's a good thing I happen to be decent with that element." He looked up at Hellboy. "I'll need your help. When that thing gets out, I need you to keep it distracted." He said while sticking his nose into the clothes still held in the demon's right hand. He dug around for a moment, until Hellboy set the clothes down to give him easier access.

"Sure thing, scout. What about the big bad wolf?" He looked up at the werewolf. It was pawing at the path excitedly, tail swishing. John raised his head and opened his mouth as if to speak when another tremendous crack sounded. 

The ice burst upwards, crashing into the path and destroying it. Slices of glass-like shrapnel shot through the air, causing them all to duck into the lip of the cave for safety. The werewolf scrambled around, jumping to unbroken chunks of path as it tried to get to safety. A roar shook the cave, the sound ringing like a pseudo-Godzilla sound effect. 

The ice dragon was rising from its prison beneath the path. Scales chipped the ice, making even more fall to the ground. A head like that of an iguana stuffed with porcupine spikes turned towards the wolf, blue eyes flashing dangerously. The werewolf looked back to the creature it had been trying so hard to rouse just in time to see the sharp teeth come slicing down. John winced sympathetically as the werewolf dissipated in a splash of blood on the frozen walls with little more than a whimper.

"Um....Red, distraction time!" John jumped out onto the remains of the ice path, hurrying off to the side. Hellboy leveled the Samaratin at their new enemy. The ice dragon was huge. It had a pair of hind legs and two huge wings that stretched from its shoulders. The white scales glistened in the low light, running over its reptilian form from the blood painted, horned face down to the whipping tail.

"Hey ugly! Got a present for ya'!" He shouted. The dragon turned its attention to the demon. Hellboy shot, his first bullet sinking into the scales beneath the dragon's left eye. It shrieked, making the entire cave shiver. The scales seemed like ice, holding the bullet in a clear prison without letting it harm the flesh below. The demon's second shot went wide when the dragon's long tail looped around him, dragging him from his feet. Hellboy grabbed at the walls with his right hand until he caught a large crack. The dragon's tail slipped free, scales tearing the leather pants from the knee down, and he shot it in the stomach. The bullets didn't seem to be having much effect on the thing besides pissing it off. He hoped John was almost done with whatever he'd planned.

John was finishing his task. It had taken longer than usual with his paws, but the blasting kit he grabbed from his kit was armed. He tilted his head up, seeing Hellboy dangling over the deep floor of the cave. He wasn't sure if the demon could survive a fall from that height, but he really didn't want to find out. 

He barked loudly, the sound echoing in the huge cavern, to get the dragon's attention. It turned its head to him, delivering a hiss that pelted John with icy air. He lowered his head with a growl then barked again. He wanted it to attack. If he could piss it off enough... The dragon shrieked again, making John want to cover his ears. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard to him. He barked and growled at the dragon, raising himself onto his back legs. The dragon hissed again then dove towards him. John lept away, watching as the dragon got a mouthful of the icy platform. He smirked internally. The path wasn't the only thing the dragon had taken a bite of. It turned to him again, opening its mouth wide to roar. 

John took a deep breath, feeling heat start to gather inside of him. The markings on his body glowed brighter, surging with power. The dragon started its deafening noise at the same time as John gave sharp howl. A circle of light started melting the ice at the dragon's feet. As the ice gave out, a pillar of fire burst from the ground. It burned into the creature's throat, boring through it like a drill, igniting the blasting pack. The explosives rang, three loud bangs echoing through the cave. The dragon shrieked, this time in pain. It swayed towards John, teeth barred for a final strike.

Hellboy got back up to the path in time to see the dragon's throat explode. His eyes scanned for John, finding him as the agent fell to his side on the ice. The dying dragon started to move towards him, ready to take down John with it. Hellboy took off running. His boots slid and he took aim while he moved, shooting the dragon in the face. It seemed unfazed, falling more than lunging towards the downed agent. Hellboy reached John as the dragon's teeth came down, falling to his knees and sliding into the hellhound. The slide knocked them both from the creature's path. 

It screamed, stuck to its upper jaw in ice. The demon eyed the dragon as its body gave one final thrash, then was silent. He watched it for a long moment, seeing the light behind its blue eyes fading into darkness, before slipping Samaratin back to its holster and turning his attention to John. 

The boyscout was limp. His glowing red marks had dimmed significantly, but Hellboy was relieved to note that he was breathing. He gingerly hauled John into his arms. The agent was colder than he expected. For a hellhound, he should have been a lot warmer. The demon quickly made his way back to the other cave, lowering John down beside the fire.

"Abe, is he okay?!" He demanded quickly, heart rate too high for his liking. John wasn't really moving aside from the slow breathing. He wasn't sure what the boyscout had done, but from the look of things, it took a lot out of him.

Abe knelt down, resting his hand over John's head gently. He was silent for a moment. "He is fine, Red. The fire he summoned took a lot of his energy. It was the first time he tried something on such a large scale." The sapien withdrew his hand slowly. Hellboy swept a hand over John's fur tenderly, a relieved sigh escaping him. The softness of the fur was the same as John's hair, he noted absently.

"Ve should move out before the blizzard hits. Is Agent Myers in need of medical attention?" Krauss moved to set John's clothes down a little ways away from the fire. Hellboy raised his eyes. If John needed a doctor, he'd carry the boyscout back if he had to.

"I believe that as long as he stays warm and rests, he should be completely fine." Abe straightening. "Do you have any objections, Red?" The demon shook his head, relieved, and sat down against the wall.

"Nah. I'll keep John warm til you get back for us. We'll be fine unless there's anything else in these caves that has the munchies." He joked. Abe blinked.

"I have not sensed any-"

"It was a joke Abe." The icthyo sapien blinked again.

"Ah. I see." He nodded. "Well, stay warm and we will return as soon as possible." Hellboy gave a little wave as the two of them turned to leave. 

His attention went back to John. It was hard for him to focus on anything else at the moment. The kid was passed out from the fight and it worried him. Abe had said everything was okay...but he'd feel better if boyscout would just wake up. With a fire going, the cave wasn't too cold. John would be frozen if he were in his human form right now, but with his clothes he would be fine.

Hellboy was starting to relax when John's body twitched. He straightened, eyes fixed on the prone form. The fur was fading, along with the symbols on his skin. Hellboy scooped John up quickly, grabbing his clothes from the side. If scout changed back while he was still out, he'd wind up frozen. Holding the rapidly changing body of his agent; he'd wonder when he started thinking John was his later, he shook out a pair of boxers to slide onto him. The demon had to try to ignore when John's body had finished changing and was now the same naked body he'd been fantasizing about earlier that day. He managed to get the boyscout into his long johns before the agent seemed to rouse from the movement. Red eyes slowly blinked open, glowing faintly with inner light as they peered up at Hellboy.

John wondered how he had ended up in the demon's lap, the stone hand supporting his back while the other seemed to be pulling clothing onto him. He didn't feel he had the energy to speak or move. Not that he wanted to. Being in Hellboy's lap like this was a dream come true. Maybe it was a dream, after all. He smiled, leaning into the broad chest beside him and nuzzling the warm black shirt. Hellboy resumed clothing him, but only the bottom parts of his outfit. Pants, snow pants, socks, and boots were replaced. Then the demon wrapped the rest of the clothes around John's shoulders and pulled him a little closer. 

The agent hummed happily as heat spread through his body. He could feel the arms around him. Hellboy's stone hand curled around his back to rest on his hip while his flesh hand was looped over his shoulders. He almost wished he was more cat than dog, so that he could start purring. The thought was amusing. Hellboy would like it if he purred, John was sure.

Said demon was trying very hard to keep his mind out of the gutter. Boyscout was exhausted. Now was not the time for him to be getting a hard on. Besides, they still had things they needed to sort out first. Serious, grown up things. The thought made him tighten his grip on John. 

No matter what had happened between them in the past, John was always there for him when he needed him. He took it for granted back then. This time would be different. Sure, he didn't like the idea of boyscout being his life long babysitter, but there were other ways to think about it. After all, if John was willing, he could be a life long mate. Even with Liz, he'd never had that possibility. The thought made Hellboy's chest swell happily. People came and went from his life. It was the downside of being mortal. John...John would be there. 

Abe had said the scout trusted him completely. If he could trust him so much that he gave up being normal...just to stay at his side... Hellboy turned his gaze down to the agent in his arms. John was a prize that he didn't know if he deserved, but one he sure as hell wanted.

It took almost an hour for John's energy to come back. He only realized it when a slight cramp in his back gave him the encouragement to stretch. As his limbs cracked and his body groaned, he turned his crimson eyes to Hellboy's amber ones with a smile. "You're quite a good furnace there, Red." He complimented with a chuckle. The demon fixed him with an unreadable expression before pulling him back against his chest.

"Then get back here and warm up." He commented in a low, gravelly tone. John craned his neck to look up at him again, concerned by the seriousness in his voice.

"Is...something wrong? Is it about before-?" Hellboy silenced him with a squeeze.

"I ....was an ass...Antarctica, the hellhound thing...and Liz. I was a complete ass. So....y'know...sorry." He grunted out the last part as John's eyes flew wide. He hadn't expected an apology like that. He thought Hellboy would still be upset.

"Red...I'm not mad." He raised a hand to the demon's cheek, pleased to find him leaning into the touch.

"I know...but you have every right t' be." Hellboy lowered his head, resting it so John's forhead was nestled between the stubs of his horns. "You're too damn good t' me."

John smiled happily. He was closer now to what he wanted than he ever thought possible. Every instinct told him to nuzzle up against the demon like the dog he was, but he fought it down. "I care about you, HB." He swallowed. "Actually...I..." He tried to muster up the courage to say the words, even though self preservation screamed at him not to. Still, even if he messed this up, he was devoted to Hellboy in every way. He had to let him know that. "I love you." John watched the demon's eyes grow wide. His heart pounded heavily in his chest. For a moment, he thought that he might be shoved away from the warm embrace he was so enjoying. The worry was erased as Hellboy cupped his face and kissed him.

He loved him! Boyscout loved him! He couldn't find the words to express his joy, so he had to do the next best thing. Pulling John into a kiss was the best choice he'd ever made, because it was better than any kiss he'd had before by tenfold. The agent responded with complete enthusiasm, the two of them kissing with bruising pressure. When he licked the scout's lips, he parted them without pause, tongue coming forward to dance with his in an instant. They wrestled together lightly before Hellboy won and took the pleasure of dominating John's mouth. His tongue found every curve, every line, and coaxed a low moan from the boyscout that went right to his cock. Eventually, the need for air broke them apart, their hard panting sending clouds of steam between them.

John had never been so thrilled. Hellboy dove in to kiss down his throat and the agent arched up against him. His body felt like it was on fire. It could have been, for all he knew, because he was far too focused on running his hands over the flat planes of Hellboy's clothed chest to care about that. He shifted his knees to straddle the demon, satisfied when he felt the hardening erection beneath him. 

He rolled his hips gently, pressing his own hard length down into Hellboy's, and heard both of them groaning from the friction. Hellboy wrapped his stone arm around John's hips, nipping at a patch of skin on his neck. It was so good! The blissful heat and the electric pleasure spiking through his body were amazing. The agent smirked as the arm at his hips encouraged him to grind them together again. He was starting to lament the tightness of his pants as their bodies pushed against each other.

Hellboy licked a line from John's collar bone to his chin. "I want t' make you my mate, John." He leaned up to growl in his ear seriously. "You gonna freeze if I fuck you right here?" John gasped, hips giving an uncontrollable jerk that had the demon smirking.  
"I-I'll be fine...if I'm close to y-you." He stammered. Hellboy narrowed his eyes as the feral instinct inside him was awakened. He shifted John up, jerking off the pants he had so carefully put on him earlier. The cloth was shifted to his sides, blanketing the ice to keep John's legs warm. The agent had been blushing darker and darker, his face now almost reaching Hellboy's shade as the demon lowered him back down. Shaking hands went to his belt as John hurried to free Hellboy from the constraining cloth. When he managed to shove the pants out of the way, the demon gave a low groan. His cock was finally released to the cold air. He watched the agent as John eyed his size in awe, a dark swell of pride coming over him.

"Come here, boyscout." He growled, pulling John up with his stone hand wrapped firmly over the agent's hip. John leaned forward, eyes gleaming again. He raised his flesh hand to the agent's face, watching when he wordlessly took it in both hands and started to suck on his fingers. A primal surge swept through him. It took all of his self control not to just slam into scout like he wanted to. He knew he had to prepare him first. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt him.

John was surprised when the fingers withdrew from his mouth. Less so, however, when one of the slick digits pressed slowly inside of him. He groaned loudly, the slight burn of entry mixing with the delicious sensation of heat massaging his insides. A second finger joined the first, starting to scissor apart inside of him. He instinctively pushed back onto the invading fingers, mind going blank as his body begged for more. A third finger pressed inside. This one hurt a little, but he tried to hide the whimper by pushing onto it again. Hellboy stretched him slowly, his mouth leaving wonderfully hot kisses over John's neck and shoulders. The pain had started to ebb away. He wanted more. 

The agent moaned and slid his hand down to Hellboy's raging erection. The hot flesh twitched at his touch. A growl rumbled against his throat warningly. He ignored it, wrapping his hand around Hellboy as much as he could, and gave him a few slow pumps. The demon's teeth pushed lightly against his neck and the fingers inside of him twisted, pressing on a spot that made him writhe in ecstasy. He couldn't muster the focus to keep stroking as his prostate was repeatedly rubbed. Tension was building in his hips and he knew that if he didn't get Hellboy to move on, he'd miss the part he really wanted.

Hellboy smirked when John's body started quivering. He knew it wasn't from the cold. Boyscout was going to cum, but he'd have to wait a little longer. The agent's whimper when Hellboy removed his fingers was beautiful. He'd have to contemplate later that he'd found a new way to tease John. Now it was time for the real deal. He raised John's body so that his entrance aligned with the tip of the demon's cock. Red eyes connected with amber and they both smiled. He let scout set the pace, watching the agent lower himself down slowly. Inch after inch of twitching, hot softness enveloped him. John was fucking tight. 

After a long moment, the agent was fully seated in his lap. Hellboy leaned down to catch his mouth in another desperate, passionate kiss. He could feel John start to relax onto him, his inner walls loosening their grip, but only a little. He raised the agent a bit, pushing back into the tight heat. John moaned, pulling away from the kiss as his head arched back. Hellboy smirked again, returning to the agent's neck. Another slow rise let him thrust back inside his little mate. John raised himself the next time, taking a moment to kiss each of Hellboy's horn stubs tenderly. The demon nearly threw caution to the wind as the urge to slam him back down swelled inside.

John knew he'd done something right from the hungry look in Hellboy's amber eyes and picked up the pace. Slow and steady would be fine another time, but right now he wanted everything his lover had to give. He wasn't human any more and he wanted to know just what happened when Hellboy really let loose. He caught a glimpse of Hellboy's tail, flicking softly as he thrust inside of him. A devious idea ran through his mind; a way to push the boundary of the demon's self control. 

He reached out to the squirming tail, feeling the heat of the leathery flesh against his palm and hearing Hellboy inhale sharply through his teeth, then raised it to his lips. John made sure to keep eye contact with the demon as he kissed the tip of the tail lovingly, then enveloped it in the heat of his mouth.

The sight of John blissfully sucking on his tail left the final crack in Hellboy's restraints. His hands took control of the agent's hip, bringing them up to slam back down onto him hard. His thrusts were rough and fast. He angled slightly to hit the bundle of nerves inside that would have John seeing fireworks. The agent gave a muffled cry around his tail, which he had unconciously started thrusting in tandem with each slam into John's tight ass. Harder; faster, spiraling into waves of pleasure and desire until both of them were close to their finish. John rocked against him, every breath coming out a muffled whimper as he licked at the tail that was fucking his mouth. 

The agent wasn't even touching himself, his hands braced solidly on Hellboy's shoulders, when the tension inside him snapped and had him screaming around the demon's tail. Hellboy followed him over the egde as John got impossibly tighter, lowering his head to bite solidly into the agent's neck and marking him as his own.

John's body rippled in delight around the sensation of being completely filled and marked by his beloved at the same time. His heart pounded in his ears, vision clouded in white. It seemed like forever before he came down from his high. His heavy breathing echoed in the cave. He was unbelievably exhausted, but completely sated. He felt Hellboy licking the blood from his neck gently and again wished he had the capacity to pur.

"That was...so good..." He finally breathed. A low chuckle responded. Hellboy raised his flesh hand to stroke John's back slowly.

"Better than good...my mate." He rumbled possessively. The agent felt giddy and nuzzled into his neck.

"That sounds sooooooo amazing." He murmured against the heated, red skin. Hellboy kissed the bite mark on his neck, his outward sign to others that John belonged to him.

"Good. Because you'll be hearing it a lot. And I'll be hearing those moans a lot." He smirked when John gave his arm a playful slap.

"I'm glad you came here, HB." He said, voice tired but laced with genuosity. Hellboy shifted the agent slightly to pull his pants back onto him, using the boxers that he didn't really need in order to wipe them both off from the remnants of John's release, then brought him into a tight embrace.

"Y'know what, boyscout? I'm thinking maybe I like Antarctica." The two of them laughed softly, slowly curling into each other's warmth. A lot had happened to them, but the best by far...definitely Antarctica.

THE END


End file.
